INCOME TAX

Rev. Rul. 2005–37, page 1343. LIFO; price indexes; department stores. The April 2005 Bureau of Labor Statistics price indexes are accepted for use by department stores employing the retail inventory and last-in, first-out inventory methods for valuing inventories for tax years ended on, or with reference to, April 30, 2005.

T.D. 9207, page 1344. REG–106736–00, page 1376. Final, temporary, and proposed regulations under section 752 of the Code relate to the definition of liabilities. These regulations provide rules regarding a partnership’s assumption of certain fixed and contingent obligations in connection with the issuance of a partnership interest and provide conforming changes to certain regulations. These regulations also provide rules under section 358(h) for assumptions of liabilities by corporations from partners and partnerships. In addition, to prevent the abuse that section 358(h) was designed to prevent, these regulations also provide rules that, with respect to an exchange to which section 358(a)(1) applies, remove the exception for transfers in which substantially all of the assets associated with a liability are transferred to the person assuming the liability as part of the exchange.

Rev. Proc. 2005–31, page 1374. This procedure provides safe harbors for determining the finality of the adoption of eligible foreign-born children for purposes of the adoption credit and the exclusion for employer-provided assistance for qualified adoption expenses. The expenses of a re-adoption proceeding may be qualified adoption expenses. Notice 2003–15 modified and superseded.

Finding Lists begin on page ii. Index for January through June begins on page vi.